29th June'13

We are now at Kingston, where we have had a lovely afternoon with Terry and Barbara and an excellent lunch. Decisions have been made. I've rung the marina and we're going in on Wednesday to allow us time to go back to Hampton on Monday, then get down to Teddington and through onto the Grand Union on Tuesday, as there are apparently some good moorings at Brentford and then on up to Willow Tree on Wednesday. That leaves me tomorrow for a bit of retail therapy. Not that I need a lot and am waiting for the next few pounds (lbs) to disappear before buying anything but a girl has to do what a girl has to do.

Leaving Hampton Court - this is the view from the river - as we left our moorings another boat came straight into them! Popular spot.

A couple of paddle boarders - the first we've seen since Windsor where the place was alive with them. The photo doesn't really show it but there was quite a swell on the water - nutters!!!!!

Terry and Barbara with John outside the White Hart. As I said I had the best lunch I've had in a long time - goats cheese and leek wellington with new potatoes, fine green beans and white cream sauce. MMMMM to die for.

This is the said White Hart - just north of Kingston Bridge and I would recommend it to anyone. It was only about 5 minutes from the boat and we discovered that Hampton Park actually comes to an end here as well. Impressive grounds.

I took Paddy for a walk in the park and found an Ice House. It was a lovely day but Paddy didn't like the fact that John had come out with us and then disappeared to find a paper and do his lottery so I had to drag him in one direction and chase after him in the other. The joy to discover John coming to meet us was immense!

It's a very vibrant mooring here - lots happening. There are numerous bars on the other side of the river and we have had all sorts of craft coming and going. Here's the Dragon Boat that went up and back, drum banging all the time. I don't know who expends more energy - the rowers or the drummer. It's surprising here how the boat is affected by passing craft - it seems that the wider the river gets, the more we get flung around as boats go by us. Paddy is not at all happy.

We had problems finding a mooring today. We wanted to be near a road so that we could meet the others but that wasn't a problem, finding somewhere empty was! We went downstream and just missed the last mooring here and went further down and turned, thinking that if the worst happened we'd have to moor on the Surrey side, pay and have to walk back to the bridge, but as we were coming past a couple shouted out that we could moor up alongside them. Thanks Graham and Jean on Maid of the Mist. We moored up next to them but by the time we got back from lunch another boat had disappeared so we moved into that space. Simples.